The basic problem of storing and displaying cylindrical objects, such as wine bottles, was solved centuries ago with the invention of the wine rack. Since that time, however, the current available racks have progressed only slightly and have failed to meet certain needs.
The earliest wine racks were simple slats, usually of wood, joined by conventional fasteners, such as nails or screws. These racks, as with most furniture, are static once erected. The overall shape of the rack may not be changed without tearing it apart and rebuilding it. To attach more available storage space to the rack involves attaching more rack members with more permanent and damaging nail or screw fasteners.
Other, more modern, racks have become more like puzzles. Racks such as these are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,870,155 and 3,606,023. These racks resemble kits, with the particular rack pieces designed to fit together in a particular fashion, connected by intricate fasteners, such as the interlocking key of U.S. Pat. No. 4,715,503. Generally, these kits are designed to fit together in only one configuration. To produce a significantly different configuration usually requires additional pieces having different sizes than those already available in the kit.
In addition, these racks are usually designed to stand alone, or at best, to be stacked vertically or horizontally without interconnection. Gravity or simple abutment is relied upon to keep the rack units in place. However, the overall stability of stacked rack units that are not interconnected is greatly reduced.